1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to TV interfaces and control systems and methods for controlling entertainment systems employing a TV as a display device. More particularly the present invention relates to systems and methods for search and display of TV accessible content.
2. Description of the Prior Art and Related Information
Modern TV based entertainment systems have the ability to access a large variety of content. Such content ranges from large numbers of digital TV channels, movies available through online pay per view or other subscription access services via cable or satellite, other online available media, as well as various locally stored media such as audio, pictures and video, and internet access. Accessing such content efficiently is impossible without employing a search feature of some type. At the same time TV interfaces are designed for ease of use with remote controls with well known control buttons, such as Up-Down-Left-Right (UDLR) and Select.
Search techniques of various complexity are known and in TV applications are typically kept simple due to the difficulty of text entry with remote controls. Usually a search category is selected and search results are displayed and scrolled through using the UDLR controls on the remote. For example, a search menu may lead to a category such as movies or sports and the search commences from there. This is easy to use with a remote control with UDLR inputs but requires the additional time to scroll through menu layers to get to the desired search category/field. This becomes more and more problematic as the number of field/categories increase making menus undesirably multi-layered and complex to navigate.
Accordingly a need exists for an easier way to search and display results in TV applications.